


The Secret

by acclaimedwriter



Category: Casualty (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2021-02-12 20:23:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21482329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acclaimedwriter/pseuds/acclaimedwriter
Summary: Duffy fears the worst when Charlie locks himself away every night in the spare room. Never did she realise what he was doing for her in that room.
Relationships: Lisa "Duffy" Duffin/Charlie Fairhead
Kudos: 6





	The Secret

At first Duffy just assumed Charlie wanted some alone time, hence why he kept going to the spare bedroom most nights. But the more it occurred, the more she found herself panicking. Was her marriage in trouble? Was Charlie planning on leaving her? It was all thoughts that ran through her mind constantly and she was even more curious to discover what exactly he was doing in there. One day Duffy attempted to find out what was going on, what was so important in that room that Charlie couldn’t share it with her - his wife, only to discover he’d put a lock on the door. She kicked the door in frustration.

“Will you please tell me what’s going on?” She asked when he returned home from work. She was sat on the stairs waiting for him to come home. Charlie smiled, “tell you about what darling?”

“Don’t Charlie.” She sighed heavily, “I’ve not lost my marbles just yet.”

Charlie removed his coat, hanging it up on the peg and joined Duffy on the stairs. “I have no idea what you’re going on about.”

“Yes you do. The spare room? You spend all your time in there and now you’ve locked it. Why?”

“You, Mrs Fairhead are too nosey for your own good.” He playfully tapped her nose and she frowned, wrinkling her nose up.

“Please tell me.” Duffy paused for a couple of minutes collecting her thoughts, “are you leaving me?”

Charlie was taken aback by her question and she swallowed hard when he moved. He crouched down in front of Duffy and placed his hand against her cheek, “is that what you think?”

She looked down at the floor and nodded.

“Look at me?” Charlie encouraged gently and Duffy hesitated for a moment before she gently lifted her head, meeting Charlie’s gaze.

“I am not planning on leaving you ok? I love you. You’re my wife.”

She nodded, “I love you too.”

It reassured her and settled her for a few more days until the voice in the back of her head grew louder. Duffy still couldn’t understand why Charlie was in that spare room but all sorts were beginning to run trough her head again. Since the dementia, she’d needed a little more reassurance than normal. It was something they were both still adjusting too. Duffy burst in the room when she knew Charlie was in there, the door banging against the set of drawers. Charlie tried to hide what he was doing, he was sat on the floor with art supplies and crafts.

“Duffy?”

With a hand on her hip, Duffy frowned. This really wasn’t what she was expecting when she burst in here. To be honest, she wasn’t sure what she’d find exactly.

“What are you doing?”

Looking up at his wife, he knew he had no choice but to tell her the truth.

“Sit down on the bed, close your eyes. No peeking.”

Her features softened slightly despite the frown and she listened to her husband’s instructions. She sat down on the bed with her eyes closed and Charlie pulled out a box from underneath the bed, got up off the floor and placed the box into her lap.

“You can open your eyes now.”

He sat beside her as she slowly opened her eyes. Duffy looked down at the parcel in her lap.

“It’s a box.”

“Open it.”

Duffy glanced at Charlie before she looked back at the box in her lap. Gently she removed the top of the box. Inside was a scrapbook. A plain scrapbook. She took the scrapbook out and then moved the box onto Charlie’s lap.

“You were doing this?”

He nodded. “I wanted to make something special for you.”

That admission melted her heart, her worries that he was having second thoughts because she’d been diagnosed with dementia all disappeared. Her eyes filled with tears as she gently opened the book.

For as long as she’d known Charlie, Duffy never thought he was creative. He just didn’t seem the type. The scrapbook started from the day she started work at Holby and contained all the important dates in her life. The day of her son’s births, all her achievements in between, from opening the clinic in Cambodia to becoming a midwife.

She burst into tears.

“I didn’t mean to make you sad.”

Duffy shook her head and moved the book quickly onto Charlie’s lap so her tears didn’t ruin it.

“I’m not sad. I…” She wiped the tears with the back of her hand, “No one has ever done anything so sweet before.”

He smiled sadly and kissed her forehead. “You didn’t see the last page, did you?”

“No.” Duffy said quietly and gently took the book back. Reaching the final two pages, there was a question and an envelope.

Are you ready for an adventure?

“Open me” was written on the envelope glued onto the page. Duffy looked at Charlie who gently encouraged her with a nod. She bit her lower lip as she gently undid the envelope and pulled out two tickets.

“But these are…” She swallowed, “two around the world tickets. What about work?”

“I handed in my resignation, today.”

Duffy’s attention was quickly drawn back to Charlie. He’d done what?

“What?”

“I resigned. With immediate affect.”

“Why?” She asked quietly.

“Because I don’t want to look back in five years time Duffy and wish I’d done more with you. So lets go on an adventure. See the world. Create memories. I want to do it with you and fill a new scrapbook, together.”

Duffy looked down at the tickets in her hand, then the scrapbook and then lifted her head to look at her husband.

“You’d do all this for me?”

Charlie nodded, “for us. I’d do it for us.”

Duffy bit her lower lip before she lent forward and planted a delicate kiss against Charlie’s lips.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

There was a comfortable silence between them for a moment before Duffy handed him one of the tickets.

“Lets do it.”

He took the ticket, entwined in his hand with hers and repeated, “lets do it.”


End file.
